If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

I don't consider initially being duped implausible, but I do feel that being duped for as long as he was falls into implausible territory.

1. Notre Dame played at Stanford on November 26, 2011. Did it occur to him to try to finally meet this girl at Stanford, the school which she attended? Did he try to meet with her that weekend?

I agree with this, but as others have said "she" always had an excuse why she was not available. Perhaps it was just a good con.

2. Did it ever occur to him to look online for her obituary after she died? That's probably one of the first things most people would do if someone they cared about died. Wouldn't he be curious about this girl and what she did in her life? Obituaries are published for a reason - people want to read them when loved ones die. Most people would google her name and immediately get suspicious when no obituary came up.

My biggest question

3. Why make absolutely no effort to try and attend the funeral of this woman you allegedly love?

Supposedly "she" made him promise if anything ever happened he would not come to the funeral and play in her honor. My family in SB called me the day the grandma died, and I remember asking if he would fly home for the funeral, and they told me he was going to play then fly home that next weekend (ND bye week). Of course I was confused because I thought both funerals were in Hawaii.

To think, if I had just Googled this gal I may have broke this story before deadspin!

4. Why not try to visit her in the hospital after the car accident?

Another question I have, and one that confuses me as "she" was in the hospital while Teo was on summer break so it is not luck he was swamped with school

5. Are there phone records that will show that he was on the phone multiple nights to the same number?

I keep asking, and no one seems to know. Seems it would be easy enough for Teo to prove with phone records.

6. The fake girlfriend allegedly dies the day after his grandmother. So are we supposed to believe that these alleged catfishers decided to kick it up a notch and move into viciously evil territory by playing on his emotions after losing his grandmother? That's far beyond normal "catfishing". Is it not natural to think that the fake girlfriend dying a day after the grandmother was awfully "convenient" for the emotional story the media ran with throughout the season? Everyone loses a grandparent at some point, but very few people lose a girlfriend the day after their grandmother. Te'o had the most to gain from the hoax.

I believe the guy admits he did this. Lord knows why. Maybe he always planned on bringing her back from the dead. Maybe it was just a cruel joke gone too far (by a lot, like a hell of a lot). Again, sick.

7. Why talk about how cancer killed your girlfriend and grandmother on December 8 when you were allegedly told on December 6 that the girlfriend didn't exist? Clearly at that point, Te'o was completely full of crap. The question is how big of a liar is he? His excuse is that he "didn't want to believe it", or whatever he said in that Schapp interview. Every excuse of his is akin to "my dog ate it". Couldn't go to the funeral because of school, a family re-union prevented meeting her, etc etc etc.

He did not know this on December 6. Dec 6 "she" called to say she had faked her death to avoid drug dealers. Crazy, I know, but I could see where if he got sucked in this far..........

8. Why fixate about an online girlfriend who you've never met when you are a superstar college athlete who could have your pick of real women? Clearly he had the ability to pick up a nice looking girl, as that one pic of his real life gf shows.

Different strokes for different folks. I would be curious if he dated at all before the one that keep circulating, or if that was his only one (or one of few)

Those are eight big questions that immediately popped into my head. I find it almost implausible that all of them can be explained away by an honest answer. If he was really duped on every single one of those questions, then he really is a complete moron. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I do think it's very implausible.

I am about a die hard as a ND fan as I think you will find (my family thinks I am crazy, my wife thinks I am mental, but Saturdays are Notre Dame Saturdays in my household) and I wanted to believe Teo. But as I have said in this very thread, at the worst he made it up (sick!) and at best he is a really really really stupid person. No way to deny it. He clearly fell hook, line, and sinker

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

A source close to Te'o gave ESPN's Jeremy Schaap documents that the source says are Te'o's AT&T phone records from May 11 to Sept. 12. Their veracity could not be independently confirmed, but the source insisted they are genuine.

The records show that in that four-month span -- when Te'o has said he believed Lennay Kekua to be in a Los Angeles hospital, recovering from an accident and being treated for cancer -- Te'o made and received more than 1,000 calls totaling more than 500 hours in length from the same number in the 661 area code. The 661 area code covers Lancaster, which is part of Los Angeles County. The source told Schaap that Te'o believed the 661 phone number in question was Kekua's.

Of these calls, 110 were more than 60 minutes in length, including several that were several hundred minutes long. In an ESPN interview last Friday, and in interviews with both ESPN and Sports Illustrated last fall, Te'o said he was on the phone "every single night" with a person he believed to be Kekua, often for long stretches late at night.

On Friday, he said to Schaap, "I'd be on the phone. And she had complications from the accident and, she said the only thing that could help her sleep was if I was on the phone. So I would be on the phone, and I'd have the phone on the whole night."

From the records, however, it does not appear that Te'o was on the phone every single night for the entire night. But the volume of calls and their duration is sizable.

1,000 calls for 500 hours??

That is some colossal determination to pull off a prank...

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

The Following User Says Thank You to Slick Pinkham For This Useful Post:

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

What's way more amazing than Manti's stupidity or gullibility is all the time and effort spent to just be able to laugh with your buds about duping a guy.

Really?

After an hour on the phone wouldn't you just stop and say "Hey you stupid dumb jock, let's get real here!" unless the chick on the phone was being well-paid, and how sick is the guy paying her, if that's the case?

It's just some bizarre behavior at work, unless they imagined there was a way to get a book deal out of this or something. Still, there has to be easier scams.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Stryder For This Useful Post:

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

from Indiana Rivals site (Peegs), a post supposedly copied from the ND Rivals site.

interesting read...

---
I'm Mormon and grew up in Utah where there is a huge Polynesian population.
I think some potential explanations to this story require a little
understanding of the LDS religion and Polynesian culture.

First, LDS culture places a huge emphasis on marriage. It's antiquated but
they place a huge emphasis on marrying within the religion. THis creates a
lot of negative pushback from outside people that I can definitely see and
understand. However one of the central tenets of the religion is a type of
"eternal" marriage that requires two people of the faith to be "worthy"
(i.e., abstain from sex) and commit to marriage in a service in an LDS temple.
As you can imagine there are nearly zero LDS girls around South Bend.
It's easy to see why Manti would develop a long-distance relationship w/ an
LDS girl with an eye towards the future and not so much the present.

Marriage is kind of the end all goal for many LDS college kids. It's heavily
stressed and emphasized (for better or worse).

This is all speculation. But, I can very, very easily believe that if Manti
thought he "met" a perfect girl: LDS, Polynesian, kind, very smart
(Stanford degree), attractive, athletic (volleyball). It is not completely
unrealistic to think that he would latch onto that. Not so much for the
relationship now, but angling for the potential for a serious relationship in
the future. If he had this "perfect" girl that he emotionally bonded with
over hours of phone conversations than it's not unreasonable IMO for
him to think he had a perfect girl waiting for him once their situations
allowed for it.

Second, there is no question from my experience that polynesians typically
marry polynesians. The uniqueness of the Polynesian culture and it's emphasis
on family, style of life, religion, sports (football) is why they are such a
tight knit group. There is a joke that every Polynesian is "cousins" with each other.
They are just a really family oriented culture. Again, few/no polynesian girls live
near South Bend. Again speculating, but maybe Manti found this perfect Polynesian
girl in his mind and someonewhere the relationship in the future was worth the
less than ideal relationship in the present, something worth waiting for.

Third, the LDS religion is strict on abstaining from physical relations.
Although unfathomable for most college-age kids a significant portion of LDS
kids dont' have sex (as well as almost anything up to having sex). This can
make it more plausable for a LDS kid to develop a non-physical/sexual relationship,
and to a certain extent a long-distance relationship is ideal (not there = no sex).

Again, there are no LDS girls near South Bend. Manti "meets" a
perfect girl that is of his religion and of his culture. His culture and religion
are entirely based on family in a big-picture sense ("eternal" marriage).
Manti has the whole world as his future. He has this perfect girl (smart,
athletic, beautiful, supportive, LDS, Polynesian) that he can spend it with.
Maybe that's enough to make someone a little illogical with some of the
other things that might not have added up in his mind (like her not being
able to meet for this reason or that).

The guy who set this up is Polynesian and would have known all of this
too, and exploited it. His victim was perfect.

IMO, Manti is nothing but class and did nothing to deserve this. Whatever
mistakes he might have made at the end where done by a national figure about
to play in the biggest game of his life after having his world turned upside
down by one of the most freakish phone calls you could get. That is a hard
situation to face.

Last edited by Slick Pinkham; 01-23-2013 at 10:56 PM.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Slick Pinkham For This Useful Post:

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

I'd buy some of that, but with the emphasis on family, religion, marriage, morality, etc., I would expect him to visit the injured girlfriend in the hospital or the dying girlfriend in the hospital or even attend his loved one's funeral.

This is what I don't get. The scam was pulled by a guy, but he could find a woman equally dedicated to the scam that she spends 100s of hours on the phone? How does that make any sense at all? Who is the woman? Why did she do this?

The Following User Says Thank You to SoupIsGood For This Useful Post:

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

some of that phone time was Te'o talking to nobody at all, the story goes (he thought it was his unconscious GF and that his voice soothed her).

Some other person had to answer the call each time though, obviously

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

I'd buy some of that, but with the emphasis on family, religion, marriage, morality, etc., I would expect him to visit the injured girlfriend in the hospital or the dying girlfriend in the hospital or even attend his loved one's funeral.

That part is the issue to me.

JEREMY SCHAAP: You said it occurred to you never to go see her. Is that because you never saw her, at that time? It never occurred to go see her?

MANTI TE'O: I was in school. I was in the middle of finals. I was going home. And I was going to try … . So the flight home was from Chicago to San Diego; we had a long layover in San Diego. We planned she was going to come pick me and my best friend Robby in San Diego, cruise around. She had to back off. We had a flight from San Diego to L.A. and L.A. to home [Hawaii]. So that was the plan. I wasn't going to go see her. She was going to come see me in San Diego and then the accident happened.

JEREMY SCHAAP: When do you hear that she's out of the coma. Where do you think she is, physically?

MANTI TE'O: In some hospital in L.A. It's kind of weird to think about it now. I was actually on the phone when she actually got out of the coma. She was breathing as normal as I'm talking to a person breathing. On that phone call, all she utters is "Manti." I'm back at home at the time for summer break. And she utters "Manti." So I'm sitting there … like, by the way, hello, And she says "Manti, Manti" in a faint voice. That's when she wakes up. It happened about two, three, four days after I got home (in mid-May).

MANTI TE'O: Because Lennay's funeral was the same day of the Michigan game. And because, before Lennay passed away, we had a conversation where she asked me if she passed away, if I could go to her funeral? I told her no, I'm not going to talk like that. I'm not going to talk like that. She said, "Tell me this, if anything happens, promise me that you'll send me white roses and say you'll play." She said, "All I want is white roses." And leading up to the funeral, her siblings kept telling me that their mom told them she didn't want me to come. They didn't want -- and I didn't want myself -- I didn't want that to be the first time that I saw her was lying in a coffin. That's why I didn't go.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

I'm sorry. This guy seems to have a litany of excuses. I get some strange feelings from anyone who has an exhorbitant amount of excuses for behavior. Maybe he really is just the dumbest guy on the planet Earth?

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

MANTI TE'O: Because Lennay's funeral was the same day of the Michigan game. And because, before Lennay passed away, we had a conversation where she asked me if she passed away, if I could go to her funeral? I told her no, I'm not going to talk like that. I'm not going to talk like that. She said, "Tell me this, if anything happens, promise me that you'll send me white roses and say you'll play." She said, "All I want is white roses." And leading up to the funeral, her siblings kept telling me that their mom told them she didn't want me to come. They didn't want -- and I didn't want myself -- I didn't want that to be the first time that I saw her was lying in a coffin. That's why I didn't go.

The Michigan game was on September 22. Te'o's girlfriend allegedly died on September 12. Who holds a funeral ten days after someone dies? Not saying it's impossible to believe, but it seems very unlikely. That would raise a giant red flag to most people. Or did he mean the Michigan State game? That was on September 15, three days after the alleged death which would be a more believable time for the funeral. But he said Michigan, not Michigan State. It seems like he'd know the difference.

Also, are we really supposed to believe that it never occurred to Te'o to take two seconds of his time to google her obituary? That's one of the first things that most people would do.

We know at this point that he is a liar. We also know that he is pretty stupid. The question is, how much of this story is him being a liar and how much of it is him being stupid?

I agree with Stryder. He has a litany of excuses which are akin to "my dog ate it".

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

The South Bend newspaper reported the same odd timeframe last fall:

Te'o was not able to attend the services for his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, in California. She died unexpectedly and suddenly after battling leukemia. Her funeral took place on Sept. 22, the morning of the ND-Michigan game.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

10 days is a long *** time to not be able to visit your dead girlfriend. Class or not.

Is it possible that Manti could be a little mentally disabled?

Also, if her funeral was on Saturday the 22nd, then wouldn't that logically mean that the funeral visitation would have been on the 21st? Why make no effort to go to that? Why make no effort to visit the family in that 10 day span?

Like I said, we know he is a liar. We know he is stupid. The only question is what percentage does each make up in the pie chart?

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

Wow, you guys are so certain and sure of yourselves. One would think you have multiple experiences of having lost someone from a strong but long-distance relationship while doing something else vitally important and having been told what your relationship partner's wishes are.

One would also think you are completely aware of what all funeral practices are everywhere in the country, and that there is some absolute about having a funeral within 3-5 days.

Also that it would be nothing for a guy preparing for a major game to fly across country for a visitation and then fly back in time for his game the next day.

Based on all of this, he is "stupid" and a "liar".

I really hope you are actually as smart and savvy as you believe yourselves to be, and that someday you don't find yourselves caught up in a scam that people around you find hard to believe you fell for.

Given my experience with people being scammed, with human nature after having been scammed, and with far too many close family and friends having died both suddenly and of long-term illnesses, the story as currently stated - that he was duped and then once he found out kept up the story for some time due to the pressure and embarrassment - is entirely plausible. Mainly because I have personal acquaintances I can DEFINITELY see falling for something like this and reacting the same way.

That doesn't mean it is TRUE, of course, but to dismiss it as impossible because it could never happen to anyone is naive.

BillS

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

He has already admitted that he is a liar. Him being a liar is not a matter of opinion. The question is how big of a liar is he?

Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o has again admitted to lying, marking at least the second time he has acknowledged knowingly spreading falsities in the saga of his fake dead girlfriend.

In an interview with ABC News' Katie Couric, set to air on her syndicated show Thursday, the Heisman Trophy runner-up says he fibbed to the media -- albeit briefly -- after learning that the death of supposed girlfriend Lennay Kekua was a hoax.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

Wow, you guys are so certain and sure of yourselves. One would think you have multiple experiences of having lost someone from a strong but long-distance relationship while doing something else vitally important and having been told what your relationship partner's wishes are.

One would also think you are completely aware of what all funeral practices are everywhere in the country, and that there is some absolute about having a funeral within 3-5 days.

Also that it would be nothing for a guy preparing for a major game to fly across country for a visitation and then fly back in time for his game the next day.

Based on all of this, he is "stupid" and a "liar".

I really hope you are actually as smart and savvy as you believe yourselves to be, and that someday you don't find yourselves caught up in a scam that people around you find hard to believe you fell for.

Given my experience with people being scammed, with human nature after having been scammed, and with far too many close family and friends having died both suddenly and of long-term illnesses, the story as currently stated - that he was duped and then once he found out kept up the story for some time due to the pressure and embarrassment - is entirely plausible. Mainly because I have personal acquaintances I can DEFINITELY see falling for something like this and reacting the same way.

That doesn't mean it is TRUE, of course, but to dismiss it as impossible because it could never happen to anyone is naive.

This is an internet message board. None of us are his judge and jury. We don't have his fate in our hands and will never meet the guy. We sit behind our computers and give sports opinions. That often requires guessing and interjecting our own theory of what happened in a story. By his own admission, he is a liar. How big a liar he is is certainly open to debate, but it is a 100% factual statement that he is a liar.

The other accusation is that he is "stupid". I and apparently several others here think that there are series of bizarre holes in the story that only a person of low intelligence would fall for, if they were indeed hoaxed. Am I wrong? Maybe I am. But I'm sticking to it and feel no shame in doing so.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

Bill if I offended you by my comments about Manti, I apologize. Certainly people can be duped, but there are an awful lot of things here that you have to be extraordinarily gullible to be duped for this long. I mean he spent 2,000+ hours on the phone with a guy pretending to be a girl.

The Following User Says Thank You to Trader Joe For This Useful Post:

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

Also isn't the whole, they are actually gay and this was just a cover up thing still in play too? Tuiasosopo takes the fall as the lone perp to cover it up. It explains the ridiculous amount of phone calls.

Re: 2012 Notre Dame Football Thread

Also isn't the whole, they are actually gay and this was just a cover up thing still in play too? Tuiasosopo takes the fall as the lone perp to cover it up. It explains the ridiculous amount of phone calls.

Yeah I mean at this point, believing that Te'o set everything up for his own gain is no more ridiculous than believing that this Tuiasosopo character literally devoted a gigantic chunk of waking hours just to get a giggle from scamming Te'o.